Voss pitches Shanley past Minot

JAMESTOWN, N.D. – Lincoln Voss didn’t have his best stuff on Thursday, and it showed early.

But the Fargo Shanley senior settled down, turning what was supposed to be a pitcher’s duel into a rout. The Deacons, seeded second out of the East Region, rolled to a 10-2 win over Minot in the opening round of the North Dakota Class A state tournament at Jack Brown Stadium.

“They hopped on me early, but my team came back and got me some runs,” said Voss, whose team meets Dickinson in today’s late semifinal, set for around 7 p.m. “Our struggle all year has been run support. At the Eastern Dakota Conference tournament and now here, we’ve been doing a lot better job of it.”

Voss entered with a 1-3 record, having lost three one-run games, two of which were 2-1 decisions. He proved a tough nut to crack for a Minot offense that averaged 11 runs a game in the regular season. He surrendered just three hits in the complete-game effort, walking five and striking out 10.

“My fastball was missing high a lot, so I went to my curveball,” Voss said. “I was throwing that a lot at the end of the game.”

Minot pitcher Demitry Zafra, a Florida transfer with a 5-0 record, struggled with his control. All four batters he walked in the first two innings turned into runs. He lasted just three innings, pitching to one batter in the fourth.

“We’ve done a ton of scouting on Minot, and we knew that Zafra would bring a lot of heat,” Shanley coach Joel Swanson said. “The people we talked to said he struggles with accuracy. Luckily, we had a first inning where we took advantage of walks and a couple early hits.”

Shanley’s four runs in the bottom of the first inning provided Voss with all the insurance he needed. Chance Mistelski highlighted the inning with a two-run double, and Jake Salentine’s two-run double in the fifth rounded out the final score for the Deacons.

“That made life a lot easier,” Swanson said of Shanley’s four runs in the fifth. “A lot of deep breaths were let out there. There’s been a lot of games where we’ve allowed teams back in the game in the sixth and seventh innings. We came into state with a goal of finishing games.”

“To give up four runs after getting two in the first inning, we’ve got to be a little tougher that way,” Minot coach Pete Stenberg said. “It just wasn’t the way it went today.”

Alex Huschka was steady from the hill, but the thrill came from James Kary.

Huschka pitched seven strong innings while Kary belted a two-run homer to lift Dickinson past Fargo Davies in the opening round of the North Dakota Class A state baseball tournament Thursday at Jack Brown Stadium.

The win means a trip to the semifinals for the Midgets (14-9), whose two-run shot from Kary on an

0-2 pitch in the first inning set the tone. They play at 4:30 p.m. today.

“That was the highlight of the game for sure,” Huschka said. “Everybody was absolutely ecstatic.”

Dickinson coach Pete Dobitz said the round-tripper made Huschka relax.

“It took all the stress off of him having to throw the perfect game,” he said. “I tip my hat and give him a huge amount of credit. Him and (catcher) Mark Erickson figured it out. They were moving the ball in and out and changing speed.”

Huschka retired 14 of the final 15 Davies hitters, running into trouble in the second and third innings. Still, he completed seven innings with 79 pitches, allowing five hits while walking one and striking out three.

“I was elevating my fastball,” said Huschka, who improved to 2-1. “I had to work down. ... I had to get ahead in counts and hit the outside corners with fastballs.”

Dickinson scored the winning runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, as Erickson’s single scored Alex Bast and Brett Schweitzer brought in Dylan Skabo on an infield hit. Skabo was the only player to finish with multiple hits in the game, going 3-for-3.

Davies starter Gunnar Linstaedt (2-1) suffered his first loss of the season.